Category: thinking

  • dreamtest

    Photo by shahin khalaji on Unsplash

    I have intensely vivid dreams. From what I gather from having talked to people over the years, they tend to be more vivid than many people’s dream and I am often given more agency within the dream than most people claim to have (meaning, I can make choices that change the story or nature of the dream), and I can read one to five words at a time (book titles, street names), and retain it upon waking. Reading signs and books in dream tends to be especially hard for most people (but not all people), if they even think to do it (knowing what something “says” and “reading it” are two different things in dream).

    I had a series of especially vivid dreams last night and I have a little experiment I think might be interesting to try out. One of you was in one of my dreams last night. The dream space took place in an old theater and we were sitting in red, velvet-covered seats in the dark. I eventually pointed to the stage while leaning over to you and whispered, “Watch. See. This is important.”

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  • Half-penny thoughts — 30jan26

    An interesting word came my way recently (I “collect” interesting words) and, while I understood the concept outside of the actual word, I didn’t know what it was called.

    That word is “aphantasia”, a condition in which a person cannot visualize mental images, and it impacts up to an estimated 5% of the population. When you say “tree” they cannot conjure up a mental image of a tree when they close their eyes.

    There is actually a spectrum of how well people can mentally visualize things:

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  • Reblog and call to help

    An excellent, extremely talented WordPress writer that I am honored to number as one of my good friends is encountering some major hurdles involving her health and a radical, unexpected life change, both of which are increasing the symptoms of her chronic illness due to the related stresses.

    Someday It Will Be Safe To Write About Everything

    If you have a moment, please go to Jenn’s site and read about some of the details of what she is going through. I know more about the details of the unexpected life changes that she is experiencing, but it is not my place to share that information.

    She could use a crowdsourced solution if one is forthcoming, so if you know anybody who could help Jenn with her growing crisis or know where she might be able to find some assistance (funding, assisted living solutions, etc.) please leave your thoughts in the comments below (comments are turned off on her post, with good reason).

    Please limit suggestions below to those “outside of the box” and please don’t offer up unverified “guesses”, no matter how well-intentioned. If you have solid answers those are always appreciated. She’s already tried to seek help from the more obvious and even some of the less obvious options, and has come up largely empty-handed.

    Please feel free to reblog this post if you think your audience might be able to help out Jenn. The more people who know about what she is dealing with, the more likely a solution will present itself.

  • Jackbooted thug files — 29jan26

    Just to provide a very short update as to the situation in Minnesota, nothing has meaningful changed here on the ground with the switching of leadership (sic) personnel. The only cool-down we are witnessing is the cool-down of rhetoric from a corrupt administration realizing they made an unforced error by demonizing Alex Pretti, who was murdered in cold blood at the hands of masked thugs in flak jackets and carrying military-grade hardware for exercising TWO of his Constitutional rights (freedom of speech and the right to bear arms, the second of which, mind you he never removed from the holster and was never in his hand during the altercation). And that rhetoric is even ramping up again. Why? Because the Trump minions (and toddler in chief, Dotard Donnie, especially) are incapable of keeping their mouths shut when the best thing to do is just shut up.

    Don’t believe the hype when they say that they are trying to bring down the temperature. That’s bullshit. They’re doing anything but.

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  • Half-penny thoughts — 28jan26

    I feel like being more lighthearted today. Rather than write all kinds of serious words about my thinking on something, I am deciding to post a “just-for-fun” question to see if anyone is interested in a little mock game of truth or dare. Use one of the off-the-cuff examples below to answer my relatively absurd question, or come up with your own response. Please note, they are all not obviously standard responses to the question. Try to keep it in that spirit if you come up with something different.

    Which is sexier in your mind?

    • A tome of dusty old words largely lost to the vagaries of time?
    • A score tucked into a sealed plaster wall from a dead composer that was never recognized for their genius?
    • Petals floating by on a slow-moving stream in a snow-covered landscape?
    • Poetry whispered into a dark room with an audience of one lonely ghost?
    • Fangs of a vampire resting on your skin, but not quite breaking it?
    • Or something entirely different from the above? Be creative, be nonstandard.

    Just curious what folks decide and come up with/decide upon. There is absolutely no motive aside from that. The only condition is that it must actually appeal to you when you post in the comments if it isn’t one of those suggested.

    Either admit one sounds appealing (Truth) or propose your own. If you Dare.